“I had never been on a farm before in my life,” says Fiona, who is from Ballyfermot in the heart of Dublin.

“We met in 2014, and after about six months, Michael brought me to Balmoral Show. I think he was trying to introduce me to farming, testing the waters, so to speak. I had never been to an agricultural show.

“At the show, I saw these gorgeously groomed sheep — Hampshire Downs. One of them hopped up on the gate, and I fell in love with them there and then. I said to Michael, ‘are your sheep like these?’ He fell around the place laughing because he hadn’t a pedigree sheep in the world. I said, ‘I think I’ll buy some of them’.

“Michael was thinking ‘this one is on cloud cuckoo land from the city and hasn’t a clue’. I’m sure he thought I would forget about it.”

But she didn’t forget about it: Fiona set about researching the breed.

“I found out there was a sale in Tullow. Off we went down,” she says. “I think Michael was just humouring me. I ended up coming out with three ewes and a ram, and that weekend I bought another two ewes and another ram.

“My family thought I was mad, just six months with this fella. I couldn’t bring these sheep back to Cherry Orchard (a suburb within Ballyfermot), but I didn’t care. I put in an investment of €2,500 that weekend.”

Also a product developer with Eircom, Fiona now loves life on the farm.

“I would be a real Dublin person. I loved the city life, so moving out to the Naul was a huge step,” she says.

“People couldn’t believe it. I met college friends who’d ask, ‘what are you doing in a mart?’ That would be the last place you would ever put me. It’s been brilliant. I love it. I took to it like a duck to water.”

Despite all the effort that goes into sheep farming, the toil hasn’t bothered Fiona.

“I remember the very first time I came down here, we went out and a woman said to me, ‘I’ll give you a tip — never ever go onto the farm, never help on the farm’. I was just looking at her, stunned. I love the farm work. I’m always out there, my life is totally different,” she says.

Michael has farmed all his life in the Naul, working for much of it alongside his mother Kathleen after his father died in 1982 when he was just seven.

“They were only eight years married. She was some woman, she held it together and kept going the best she could. It would have been hard enough for a woman with a young child trying to manage the farm,” he says.

Michael vividly remembers going to the mart with his mother as a boy to sell lambs and “earn a few bob”.

“We were depending on the farm for income,” he says. “We used go to the mart in an old Volkswagen beetle and small trailer. She would be haggling as hard as she could to get the best price, and she got a reputation for getting good prices because she wouldn’t give in to the jobbers or dealers.

“When I go to the mart now, some of the older people, which sadly are getting fewer each time, always ask for her. Even the auctioneers knew of her. She’s well remembered even though it could be 20 years since she stood in a mart.”

As the years went by, Michael took on more of the responsibility. While he keeps some dairy-bred calves, sheep are the main focus, with a flock of commercial ewes and the recent addition of pedigree Hampshire Downs.

“I always liked working with sheep, and there was always a few cattle around as well,” he says.

“We run Border Leicester cross and Suffolk cross ewes, and all of the sires onto them would be Hampshire Downs at this stage.

Michael and Fiona lamb their commercial flock down from early March, while the pedigree Hampshires lamb in early December.

Michael rejects the old saying that there is no bad land in Dublin, highlighting that the weather can have as big an impact there as anywhere else.

“When it rains here, it sometimes forgets to stop and would be nearly as wet as any other part of the country,” he says.

“In springtime, we have the problem of the East wind. It can get extremely cold, and it would skin you at times.”

In recent years, Michael has had good success rearing more of his own replacements and lambing them as ewe lambs.

“This year, they lambed away no bother a bit later than the main flock,” he says. “The key is to have the lamb at least 50kg going to the ram. We keep the first-born ewe lambs. Some of them could be 60kg.”

While Michael says it’s been a great year for lamb prices, he also says every cent of the price boost is needed to keep sheep farming sustainable.

“The work that goes into the sheep is cruel. You’re either dosing them, foot-bathing, shearing, dagging,” he says. “Every day there is nearly something to be at. Even at the price of lambs at the minute, it just barely covers it.”

However, he is confident the high prices will last.

“The sheep aren’t there. If you went into Blessington Mart 10 years ago at this time of the year, the mart would be packed. You’d have to be in it from 5am to get a pen.”

Since then, there has been a steady decline in numbers, he says.

“I put it down to the work involved. The younger generation isn’t willing to put in that work for such little return,” he says.

How Hampshire Downs are delivering huge lambing benefits to commercial herds

“You’d have to see it to believe it,” says Michael White of the success he has had using the Hampshire Down breed on his flock of commercial ewes.

Having invested significantly in their Hampshire Down rams, Michael decided to use them on the commercial flock to “make use of them”.
“We only got into these by accident,” he says. “I would never have even thought about getting one.
“When Fiona wanted to get into them, I went along with her. However, when it came to lambing, they were a pleasure.

“I could believe how well it went. The great thing about the Hampshire is as soon as they are born, they are up and sucking. A lot of people wouldn’t believe you when you tell them that. I didn’t believe it till I saw it the first spring in 2016.

“We had been running Suffolk and Charollais rams. We had no experience with Hampshires, but they took a lot of the work out of lambing.”

Michael says more commercial farmers are starting to become interested in Hampshire Down rams.

“Local farmers here are seeing the results we have had and have Hampshire rams themselves now, and are coming back for more,” he says.

“People weren’t aware what Hampshire Downs could do or how good they were.

“We wouldn’t be in Hampshire Downs in our commercial flock unless they were beneficial to us.”

The Whites have also seen success with their pedigrees, securing top prices at a number of recent sales.

While still a rare breed in Ireland, Hampshire Downs are becoming more popular, according to Michael.

Until recently, the breed here had been regulated by the UK Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders Association, but members here decided this year to set up their own society in the wake of Brexit.

The South of Ireland Hampshire Down Breeders now has 40 members and is active in organising sales.

Michael says the quality of the breed in Ireland is improving every year.

“We had a sale in Tullow in recent weeks, and the quality of the rams was first class,” he says.

“There is a huge demand for ewes and ewe lambs. They can’t be got and are going high prices. That’s a sign that more people are starting off their own flocks.”

The society has plans to hold a female sale in October, and it’s hoped it will give the breed in Ireland a significant boost.

‘Trying to move your stock on the Dublin roads is getting a lot harder’

Few people associate Dublin with agriculture nowadays, particularly livestock farming.

The entire county no longer has either a mart or a meat plant, Michael White notes, recalling trips from his family farm in the Naul to Ballymun and Finglas factories with lambs in the past.

“It’s a hard journey to get to a mart these days — a lot of cross-country driving on busy roads, and to get to Blessington, you have the M50 to contend with.

“When you’re going to the sales, you are going early and hitting rush-hour traffic.

“There used to be a mart in Balbriggan, but it must be closed 50 years.”

Michael says the atmosphere towards farming in what’s left of Co Dublin’s countryside has also changed a lot.

“A lot of city people are coming out to the country to build their houses, and trying to move your stock on the road is getting a lot harder,” he says.

“Our land is scattered, and we always shifted our stock by road with the dog. In the last three or four years, it has got harder.

“The amount of cars you are meeting is unreal, and it has got to the stage that you can’t do it any more.

“Years ago, when you’d be moving your stock, and you’d meet a car, they would pull into a gap until you pass. They were used to country life and stock on the road.

“Now, if you bring sheep up the road, cars will just blow you off the road and would just drive through your sheep. They don’t seem to understand that there are actually farmers working here.”

The impact of all the “houses and everybody rushing” is really noticeable now, Michael says, highlighting the expansion of Balbriggan just a few minutes down the road.

“The area has changed a lot with all the houses.

“I remember cows grazing their way home along the road years ago.

“But now if there was a lamb with its head out between the bars of the gate there’s someone on the phone saying, ‘your sheep are going to get out’,” he laughs.